We won’t lie: weddings are expensive. When bills are racking up, it’s understandable to look for ways to cut costs and look for the most budget friendly—or free-est—method of doing something. But there are some things that might just be worth the extra money.
Wedding websites have continued to rise in popularity and use over the years, and couples are now faced with multiple options at multiple price points. But what’s really the difference between a free wedding website and a paid one? Not to worry, Loverlies! We’re here to help you out.
What goes on your wedding website?
There are plenty of reasons that couples have turned to wedding websites in the past couple of years as a one-stop-shop for all of their wedding information. It keeps all the important details in one place, it’s easy to update with last-minute changes, and it’s accessible to anyone who might need to be in-the-know, from guests to wedding planners to any wedding staff.
While we covered the details of everything you need to put on your wedding website in an earlier post, we’ll give you the highlights here. Make sure the who/when/where is clear, as well as a rough schedule of the day. A wedding website is also a great place to share resources like hotel suggestions, local restaurants for dinner the night before or breakfast the day of, and any important travel information your guests might need to be aware of.
Besides all of that important information, a wedding website can also be a great place to show a bit of your personality as a couple. You might personalize it with photos of yourselves or use it to share the story of how you two met and got together. You can also add introductions for your bridal party or any important family members so that guests can be prepared with the who’s-who ahead of time.
Why would someone want a paid wedding website?
So now we get to the real heart of the issue: why would you pay for something that you can get for free? Well, like with every wedding planning decision, you have to evaluate where best you can spend your money and where you can save your time. For some, a wedding website might not even be necessary. However, if you do want a wedding website, paying for one may give you some more options and flexibility that will save you immensely in the long run,
Remember that in your wedding planning process, your time is incredibly valuable. You might compare paying for a wedding website somewhat akin to hiring a wedding planner; you spend a little bit more but can guarantee a level of quality that will certainly save more than a few headaches. If you feel sold on the wedding website idea but are already dreading spending hours of your life picking out a font and navigating through free versus premium features, paying for a wedding website might end up being the best decision to make.
As it always seems to be with wedding planning, it truly comes down to what you find important. Not every couple needs a wedding website and not every couple needs to pay for one. But, if you decide that it’s an exciting option and would suit your wedding needs, there are some great options out there that certainly won’t break your budget and will offer you the ease of exciting personalizations in return.
What do you get with a paid wedding website?
So you’ve decided that you have some wiggle room in your budget to accommodate paying for a wedding website, but what does that actually get you? First things first, you’ll get full access to an array of customizations, features, and unique page layouts that you wouldn’t otherwise. We’ve all had the experience of trying to use the free version of a service and then getting frustrated when you can’t do exactly what you were hoping to. Paying for your wedding website makes sure that that won’t happen, and you can feel free to design and re-design to your heart’s content.
A crucial feature of paying for your wedding website is the URL customization. We live in a time where a good URL is remembered more easily than a phone number, so you want to make sure that your guests can find your website anytime, anywhere. Otherwise, you might spend as much time as you would answering wedding questions sending out the non-personalized URL over and over again to your guest list.
What’s more, you might also have the opportunity to password-protect your wedding website. Privacy is important to you and your guest list, and it can be a little unnerving to put so much personal information about you, your partner, and a private event online. Password-protecting your site means that you will be able to control who can access all of that information and give a little more peace of mind about all of those wedding details being out there for the world to see.
How can you personalize your wedding website?
Besides all of the administrative perks of paying for a wedding website like URL customization and password protection, a huge area of flexibility and opportunity comes with the options to personalize your website. You want to make sure that your final finished product is easy to navigate and also shows a little bit of you, whether it’s by adding some of your favorite photographs or even by taking advantage of custom artwork or monogram offerings.
You can choose to get personal with the actual content of your website by adding touches like a section on your love story, the bridal party, or an “In Remembrance” page for those special people who won’t be at the actual ceremony. Or you can choose to personalize by thinking about unique designs that will give your guests a sense of who you are and what to expect from this wedding day. If you go through the same site for your invitations and your website, you might be able to accomplish this by using the same themes and styles for both, to create a cohesive wedding information package. You also can work with a dedicated designer for a one-of-a-kind design that will showcase anything from a special family heirloom or a sentimental family crest.
At the end of the day, when you are walking down the aisle, it won’t matter whether you had a wedding website or not—or how much you paid for it. But for all of the time that you spend planning, a wedding website will minimize how much time you have to repeat the same seven details on every phone call, Facetime session, or text thread. And by budgeting for a paid wedding website rather than a free one, you will have endless options to find something that is right for you and your wedding day. In other words, you’ll have the chance to truly make it your own.
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